In Her Dreams
by Harley-the-Great
Summary: Max, like any other teenager has vivid and frequent dreams. only these may be a little off the normal.


**A/N: **just a little something I thought up one day, featuring my rp-character Jess, from an X-men based roleplay**.  
disclamer thingie: **not mine, but Jess is, anything else is not so no money taking...got no anyway.

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**In Her Dreams  
**

The dreams were strange, sometimes filled with color, sometimes big grassy fields, always rather pleasant, the nightmares hadn't come for weeks, and she didn't miss them, not at all.

This time it was dark, she found herself in a cave. It looked cold, but it wasn't, but as far as she could tell, completely empty.

It was strange, for usually there were people, people in groups, alone, normal people, but they never talked to her, never noticed her, and of course she didn't make any effort to get their attention anyway.

But this time, there was no one.

She moved further into the cave, her keen eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light.

Movement.

So she wasn't alone after all, but she couldn't see who, or what, it was.

She didn't call out; it probably wouldn't notice her anyway.

…she was wrong.

"Hello" a soft voice greeted from the darkness and a man suddenly appeared, moving into a patch of light so he was visible to her.

She froze as soon as the voice reached her ears, soft, kind, very untrustworthy.

She twirled, delivering a kick to his chest, without thinking, instinct

He blocked it easily, her foot hitting his forearms, and she felt hard surface under the sleeves of his sweater, he must be wearing some sort of armor, but the force of the block should have at least knocked him off his feet, he didn't budge.

His expression didn't change at the sudden attack, almost as if he had been expecting it, but remained passive and serene, a slight smile playing around his lips.

Her eyes moved up to meet his and instantly she knew: he wouldn't hurt her.

They were large, ever so slightly slanted, and mismatched, one a deep brown, the other a bright emerald green, both smiling at her.

But the thing that convinced her was not the eyes, not his expression, but something higher on his head.

It looked like a crown, but it was connected to his head and looked to be formed out of small tough scales, it started at his hairline and curled into a thin line behind his ears and behind it, thick strands of light brown hair, darkening into black at the tips, flowed over his shoulders.

Her first impressions, she noted, had been wrong.

One: he was not an Eraser

Two: he could barely be called a man, he was perhaps about 17 – 18 still quite a lot older than she was.

"Who _are_ you?" she had to ask, the thought that he was an experiment occurred to her, but it couldn't be, she was the oldest success.

"My name is Jess" he answered simply, the smile grew slightly bigger, perhaps due to her extremely puzzled look.

"Do you…are you…from The School?" it left her lips before she could stop it "I mean…" he raised a hand to cut her off.

"The School? Well, I go to A school…but no, not what you're talking about" he paused to send her another warm smile, and she found herself relaxing, but before she could put in another comment, he continued:

"We're from two completely different worlds, you and I, both leading difficult lives because of what we are, but I, while born with the problem, do have more people on my side than you, but even so, you possess more love" his hand raised up to brush softly over her cheek, at the gesture his sleeve rode up over his wrist revealing more of the same material as his 'crown'.

"Treasure that love, for it is your greatest strength"

She shuddered slightly at the light touch, but could not find it in herself to brush him away.

The meaning of his words didn't really register. He confused, scared and fascinated her all in once.

But then he moved, turning away from her

"They know about us, where I come from, the humans" he turned again, and this time, all traces of smile had left his face, and now she noticed a scar running over his cheek, marring the smooth skin darkly, making him look slightly haunted.

Strong hands grasped her forearms, squeezing hard, almost to the point of hurting her.

She winced, letting out a gasp.

"Promise me!" he hissed out forcefully, his kind eyes now blazing with some strange light.

"what…?" he was starting to really scare her, and to add to her panic she found herself unable to move, he had her in an iron grasp.

"Promise me they'll never know, the public will never know about you, please!" he was frantic, his eyes now swimming with tears, the scar had started bleeding, the old wound reopening and oozing blood, the heavy flow already staining the collar of his turtleneck.

"Stay hidden from them" his voice had turned to a frantic whisper.

"I…I promise" the simple word did wonders, his knees seemed to give way and he crumbled to the cave floor, his hands letting go of her, but she found she still couldn't move.

"they killed her" his voice was muffled, but calm, the raw pain of the tone cut to her heart and she found herself kneeling in front of the hunched figure, waiting for him to continue.

"they killed her" he repeated "and the shot was meant for me" he told her and looked up, his bloody face streaked with tears "she was normal, she was human…and my only friend, do you understand what I'm saying?" he sounded calm now, rational.

She nodded

"Humans don't think, they let hate rule their actions, and trust me, they harbor hate for anything different, they fear us, fear turns to hate"

She nodded again; she knew about human cruelty, all too well, the thought of The School still made her sick…probably always would.

She still didn't know perfectly who he was, or even what kind of being, but she grieved his loss, his pain.

Reaching out a hand she touched his shoulder and sent him a small smile. He met her eyes and without a word, drew her into an embrace.

She stiffened, unused to this kind of affection from strangers, but it didn't last long, she relaxed.

His fingers touched feathers and he let out a small chuckle.

"I always wanted wings" he said softly, then turned serious again.

"Just be careful and take care of your loved ones"

Then he faded, his image flickering like a candle before disappearing. She stood up, suddenly feeling overcome with loneliness.

She turned sharply as the cave was flooded with light and stood facing an large mouth in the rock, blue skies visible through it.

And without thinking, she charged outside, leaping.

Falling

Falling

Flying

…

…

-x-

She woke with a gasp, sitting up in bed.

Wow, that had to be the strangest dream yet, at least the first one with her talking to someone.

Jess.

It was so real, he had seemed so real, his pain.

Her pain?

She winced, her leg was throbbing painfully, she lifted up the hem of her nightgown, a darkening bruise was forming on her right leg…exactly where she had made impact with his forearm.

Max never forgot that dream, never forgot Jess – never forgot his advice.


End file.
